gray
The ashes in the valley of ashes are all gray representing sickness, sadness, and death for most that live or work there. -RC
"I remember the portrait of him up in Gatsby's bedroom, a gray, florid man with a hard, empty face-" page 100 chapter 6 I like how throughout the whole novel Fitzgerald emphasizes the connect between gray and emptiness or weak. He even shows that something in Gatsby's very "alive" house can be empty and poor. -RD
"..A line of gray cars.." "ash gray men..." "..above the gray land.." all that on a single page. 23 -Rc
"It was a few days before the Fourth of July, and a gray, scrawny Italian child was setting torpedoes in a row along the railroad track."- page 26 chapter 2. I think that the color gray describes the kid as not only being covered in mining dust but also as scrawny, weak, or poor.- RD
"But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg."- pg 23 when describing the valley of ashes. -RD
"We backed up to a gray old man..." a lifeless and unhappy man as he is soon depicted -Rc
"At the gray tea hour there were always several rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low, sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor."-Pg. 151 .
Gray in this quote means that there used to be buoyancy but now it is dull with the occasional new faces before quickly disappearing once more. -EP |
Authors:
Rylee Davis Emily Pinckert Chris Beresford Ryan Clements |
Gray represents barren lifelessness, as shown by Wilson. "When anyone spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable colorless way." (2.17) -EP
Gray shows the lack of hope, particularly in the Valley of Ashes. Myrtle and George are stuck there and are completely lifeless. Until Myrtle meets Tom, she gets a little color in her life. But when he's gone, she goes back into the lifeless part of her life. -EP
"When anyone spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable colorless way." -CB